Philosophy of Care

I work for the patient. I believe it is my job to help them navigate challenging situations, by listening and by providing sound advice based on my training and my experience.

Unique Medical Experience and Research

Sanford internal medicine physician, Russ Wilke, MD, is a full-time clinician at the Fargo-Moorhead Campus and Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of North Dakota. Dr. Wilke is the Fargo physician lead of Imagenetics – a revolutionary program that will translate a patient’s genetic makeup to predict future health concerns and offer more effective treatments.

Dr. Wilke has practiced general internal medicine for nearly two decades. He obtained his MD (and a PhD in Pharmacology) at The Medical College of Wisconsin. After completing his internal medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin in 1999, he pursued advanced fellowship training in Preventive Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Since then, Dr. Wilke has divided his time between an active internal medicine practice and an NIH-funded research program in the field of gene-based drug dosing. He is internationally recognized for his work on the genetic predictors of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), particularly in the area of lipid lowering therapy (statin medications).

Before joining Sanford Health, Dr. Wilke was Director of Genomics and Cardiovascular Risk at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles related to drug response. In 2011, Dr. Wilke was asked to write an Invited Commentary on Genetics and Variable Drug Response for the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). In 2012, he led publication of the first international guideline on gene-based drug dosing for statins, the most commonly prescribed class of drugs in the U.S. In 2013, Dr. Wilke joined Sanford Health and is an integral member of the Imagenetics team.

Languages Spoken

English

Hobbies and Personal Interests

Dr. Wilke is married with two sons. He enjoys sporting events, and an occasional waltz with his wife.